Wednesday, Sept 29, 2010 What a full day little Rosanne Rosannadanna has had! And a day chock full of learning experiences it was. I am, quite frankly, exhausted. (I am actually writing this entry on Thursday morning - no way could I get computer time yesterday).
Three major events:
Morning: to My Dogs Gym to be with me as I taught the 11 am class.
Afternoon: to Auntie Lynn's house for meet-and-greet, play time, video work. Then home for a nap.
Evening: Back to the Gym to attend pet manners class as students.
Rosanne has adapted to being on leash now. Last night she seemed as if a leash was a totally foreign concept. I'm using Marcus' front-attachment harness for her and it's actually too big for her. She's consistently peeing right away when I take her out on leash. We have a family rule for puppies: POTTY FIRST, PARTY SECOND - all potty excursions are on leash. I stand in one spot until she goes. Then, the leash comes off and she's free to do what she likes - which at this point is to hang around me.
Last night her intro to Joey was not great. Joey did the Beardie bark at her to get her to move and she stayed back under my legs as I sat in a chair. This was in the small yard off my office. Joey bounced around trying to engage her but she just watched. After a bit, she came out and walked around ignoring Joey. Joey gave up and we had simple ignoring of each other.
Marcus was actually better with her in the introduction. He sniffed her appropriately and she allowed it. Later in the house Marcus barked and charged at her when she was in the Puppy Palace (exercise pen) and she fell over and squealed. Marcus then had a series of treat-treat-treat for looking calmly at the puppy in the Puppy Palace and we had peace after that. This morning (Wed), Joey and Marcus pretty much ignored her when we were all outside for potty breaks. And she rather ignored them too being very focused on me.
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TRAINING: NOISY GETS YOU NOTHING, QUIET GETS YOU EVERYTHING - this is a phrase from Emma Parsons. Rosanne whimpers when put in the Puppy Palace and whimpers when I approach to see her or let her out. Nothing happens for noisy puppies; quiet puppies get lifted out, door opened, pets and lovin'. She is incredibly smart and has nailed this game when I am nearby.
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AT THE GYM: I unloaded all of her gear and set up the X-pen for her to use while I teach my class. While walking about outside with her in the baby sling, she fell, jumped or slid out onto the asphalt. She never made sound! She shook herself off and appeared to be OK. Sheesh! That was scary.
She did not sleep while I taught class. Mostly she sat and watched everything. She chewed a Kong and chewed her dried rabbit ear. Class attendees were a 5-month-old Golden Retriever and a one-year-old Golden Retriever. The two class dogs were quite curious about her and I allowed them, one at a time, to come check her out at the X-pen watching VERY carefully that none of the dogs became subject to barrier frustration. I'm not fond of dogs greeting through gates, fences, X-pens, etc.
After class the Goldens had a play session while I carried Rosanne around watching them play. I did put her down for a little bit. The one-year-old had swiped Rosanne's Kong from the Xpen and she was totally focused on that. Rosanne bounced around, did play-downs, chased the two dogs a bit, they over-faced her a bit, not bad, she went back for more. I did lots of "puppy, puppy" call-outs when she was interested in the dogs with perfect head-turn responses, verbal marker, gallop to me for her treat.
At one point, Rosanne gave the five-month-old a cut-off signal. The five-month-old did not read that signal and continued over-facing Rosanne. We ended there. People she met: Judi, Brooke, Neil, Susan, Jim Dogs she met: Laney(1-year-old), Bailey (5-month-old)
VISIT TO AUNTIE LYNN: Oh! Did she ever have a great time at Lynn's house! Lynn's 11-month-old Wire Haired Vizsla was a very good puppy raiser for Rosanne to engage with. Every time Rosanne gave a cut-off signal (lie down, roll sideways), Ziva respected that and stopped forward motion towards Rosanne. THIS is what I call a good learning session. I'm not fond of puppies playing together but prefer instead for my puppy to learn one-on-one good communication skills from an older dog with good skills. Ziva had a really cool way to invite play with Rosanne - she dangled a toy from her mouth and would try to get Rosanne to grab it. There were very brief moments where both girls had hold of the toy but I could not get video as it was mere nanoseconds long.
I took lots of video and lots of video snaps which I will roll all together into one clip. Rosanne is a master at carrying obejcts around. We played baby-fetch with a pine cone - she's a fetcher! Wooo hooo! Lynn and I both commented on how good Rosanne looks when she runs full out. She looks beautiful! Auntie Lynn thought Rosanne was quite cute - they greeted and cuddled and played with a toy. Oh boy, new friends! This is a good thing as Auntie Lynn will be puppy-sitting Rosanne soon while I go off to do a seminar and then a workshop.
We had a really long and very nice play-learning session with Lynn and Ziva. I did "puppy, puppy" call-outs and added in a few "Rosanne" call-outs too. She responded with head-whips to either, got marked and treated. I love to see her little gallop towards me! THIS is what you want for socialization with your puppy - one person and/or one dog at a time, focused engagement with the person or the dog, and really getting to know the person or the dog. Yes, the barrage of strangers oohing and aahing and petting is probably good but I prefer interaction and engagement and learning sessions.
Thank you, Auntie Lynn, for such a nice greeting time! Lynn and I did a film session for one of our training videos. The subject of the video included distractions so I walked Rosanne on leash in and out of the video clip while Ziva was demonstrating the training task. I haven't watched the video yet; I do hope it's good! Rosanne has been in Oregon less than 24 hours and already I am putting her to work. I have always said that all my dogs are working dogs and they all participate in the earning of funds. She joined the workforce a bit sooner than I had expected!
Treats used: Roll-over (salmon type) and bits of her food.
People met: Lynn
Dog met: Ziva
We had a much needed afternoon nap. I settled everyone down, laid on the couch with the TV on and fell asleep as did Rosanne (in her crate). She fussed and whined with a vengenance when she heard me get up - she had to potty! Good girl.
BACK TO THE GYM: What a wonderful surprise! Auntie Barbara was at the Gym. Barbara's father was a PackMaster or Master of Hounds (I forget the correct title) for a hunting pack of Beagles when she was a kid. So she loves hounds (though she's a Beardie person as an adult). She took Rosanne and carried her all about, lovin' her up and having a great time. Rosanne is a cuddler and a love-bug with everyone and she definitely enjoyed being Barbara's little princess. Auntie Barbara helped fix her harness so it wasn't quite so big too. Rosanne and I sat in on a Start Right class. We did not do what the class was doing. We worked on conditioning the relationship between click and treat.
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TRAINING: I worked on click/treats for anything I wanted to see more of - looking at me, lifting nose from ground, doing puppy downs, running towards me. Rosanne offers lots of sits but I am not marking and reinforcing those. I don't like sit as a default behavior. I find it annoying to try to train a dog who just sits, sits, sits when it doesn't know what to do. I don't reinforce sits in a new dog or puppy until quite a ways down the road. I want a good training history of being on one's feet, doing things, offering behaviors, etc before working on sit. She does have adorable little sits I must say!
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People she met: Barbara, Shirley, Lynne
Dogs she met: Kona, 6 old month BC, and one of Barbara's Beardies
AT HOME: I thought I had Rosanne safely tucked into the Puppy Palace so that I could do a little on the computer in my office. Rosanne got out! I didn't know she was out until I heard her screaming. Marcus had charged her, pinned her down while "attacking" her (no contact, just intimidation). Joey was there but did nothing to split Marcus off. BJ would have clobbered Marcus before he even charged the puppy. There's a reason BJ had very strong limits on Marcus!
After separating everyone, we had a 15-minute-round of treats for everyone while I sat on the couch, Rosanne next to me, Marcus on his little bed on the couch, Joey in front of me. Peace has reigned since then with all dogs being in the office with me and all being civilized. Joey does know it's OK to read the riot act to Marcus and has had to do so several times since BJ left for the Bridge. So I'm not sure why he didn't step in. He's a splitter by nature. Maybe he's a bit bamboozled by this little creature that is so new. She is none the worse for the event though and everyone is co-existing quite peacefully since then.
